And the one bird singing alone to his nest,And the one star over the tower....I thought of our little quarrels and strife,And the letter that brought me back my ring;And it all seem'd then, in the waste of life,LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

His usual note was this demoniac laughter, yet somewhat like that of a water-fowl; but occasionally, when he had balked me most su...ccessfully and come up a long way off, he uttered a long-drawn unearthly howl, probably more like that of a wolf than any bird; as when a beast puts his muzzle to the ground and deliberately howls. This was his looning,--perhaps the wildest sound that is ever heard here, making the woods ring far and wide. I concluded that he laughed in derision of my efforts, confident of his own resources.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

In the fall the loon (Colymbus glacialis) came, as usual, to moult and bathe in the pond, making the woods ring with his wild laug...hter before I had risen.... When I went to get a pail of water early in the morning I frequently saw this stately bird sailing out of my cove within a few rods. If I endeavored to overtake him in a boat, in order to see how he would manuvre, he would dive and be completely lost, so that I did not discover him again, sometimes, till the latter part of the day. But I was more than a match for him on the surface. He commonly went off in a rain.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »